“The other day we were browsing around, as dinosaurs do, and … asked the very sensible question: Just what the hell do you think you’re doing with that Tumblr, Newsweek?”, inizia, puntualizzando: “I tend to use the royal “we” when posting for Newsweek, [but] the opinions expressed here are mine alone; I, Mark Coatney“. E così conclude:

I have no idea how to monetize this Tumblog. Maybe this space will have its greatest value as a source of traffic, referring people back to the Newsweek site. Maybe this will be valuable in creating genuine two-way dialogue of like-minded people that are the next generation of our committed, core readers; I think that’s supremely important and I hope this will happen. Maybe this will be super valuable in creating mindshare. Maybe terms like “mindshare” are a load of crap. Who knows? Right now, that’s not as import as experimenting with the form, to see where it takes us.

Why do we Tumbl? In the end, we use Tumblr not because it’s a great way to connect with our readers (though it is that), or because we believe this or something like it is a part of a new way forward for interaction between publishers and audience (though we think that too). We use Tumblr because it’s fun and while, you know, you can’t eat fun, or trade it in for fistfulls of dollars to fund serious journalism, we believe there’s a value in doing things we like simply because we like to do them, and that hopefully our fellow Tumblrs will too.

Journalist, blogger, entrepreneur. On tech culture and society since 1991. Author of a book about Web 2.0 and Social Media in 2006. Co-founder of a startup in 2010. Winner of Premio Nazionale per l'Innovazione del Presidente della Repubblica Italiana in 2012. Now Partner and Advisor at Fashion Technology Accelerator.